that time I could actually graphic design, Georgie Cooke (2024)

Entry from album art project (2010)

I created this as part of a project to create album covers, one every day of the year, based on some randomiser that gave you a random word and entry on Wikipedia or something like that. This was one of the most believable creations, I think.

Beach Boys Wallpaper (2010)

Amusingly 1280 by 800. What a time. I made this for someone who was a fan of the Beach Boys. I mean, I am a fan too. I forget the font in the bottom right but I was fucking obsessed with that font for a while. Edit: I found out it is Jellyka Saint Andrew’s Queen.

Strawberry Fields illustration (2010)

I think I drew this on an iPad with a stylus, or one of those desk stylus/tablet things. It’s cute, but it’s not amazing. Also, is it Strawberry Fields Forever, or Yellow Submarine, really?

Ben Jorgensen fanlisting header image (2010)

My first concert was Ben Jorgensen of Armor For Sleep (when he had his solo work out). I was also well into fanlistings (thefanlistings.org) at the time. I didn’t take this photo (even though I did concert photography in the past), but I threw some filters and textures on it in Photoshop and some text, and this was the header for a website.

Simple sky WordPress theme (2011)

I had a few WordPress themes that I had for free on my website. They got a lot of attention because people stole them and removed my credit, and then fans of my website would come at the thieves with hate comments. Theft of creative property was a big deal at the time. Most of my themes were pretty similar, with this pastel look and bold typography that I didn’t always love for my own website, but other people were frothing for that shit, I guess. lol

Strawberry custard WordPress theme for my old blog Heartdrops (2012)

I just said I didn’t love pastels for a design for my blog, but this was as close as I freakin’ went. I did draw that “heartdrops” and heart myself, probably on an iPad or something. iPad 2, mind you. 2012 was a time.

Armor For Sleep fanlisting header image (2009)

The stuff on this page is in no particular order, but you can see that in 2009, just a year before some of the “nicer” stuff from 2010 on this page, my design skills were so shit. Throw a filter on it and some text, call it a day! Cute.

Entry from album art project (2010)

This fictitious album cover leans towards indigenous music; something about its simplicity made it good.

Sketched fruit (2010)

I definitely went through a phase with this kind of pixelated sketch drawing style. I don’t recall if I used a stylus or not, but I probably did.

Star stuff banner (2011)

I made this as part of a WordPress theme for a client, but they were a nightmare client. There was so much back and forth with them. It seemed like they were not happy with anything I did. Every time I had an update, they wanted to change so many things. They eventually didn’t use the theme at all. I probably should have pushed back, given that I charged a flat rate, but I digress.

Guitarists fanlisting design (2011)

I had the fanlisting for guitarists and I had nailed this style of pretty textures and brushes, erasing backgrounds from people in a nice way, tiny pretty text of lyrics or some cool shit, all that jazz. Needless to say, I was obsessed with this style, but I think I might have been late to the party with it. I’m not sure. Haha.

Blog header image (2011)

A photo of Ben Jorgensen that I actually did take, at my first concert. It was more of a small gig, and I was at the front, and I took this either on my iPhone 3Gs or my little Kodak digital camera. Either way, I just found a way to extend the background to add all the pretty text and stuff, and I was so proud because back then, designing stuff with pictures of celebrities was generally unoriginal (unless you were making a fan site or something), and copyright issues were a big point of discussion.

One Day Son, This Will All Be Yours (2011)

I was way too proud of this one at some point, a typographic piece that I made in Photoshop using lyrics from a Fightstar song. I was trying to make something emo without being too emo.

Eyethief.com layout (2012)

A screenshot from my fanlisting collective that was at eyethief.com (the name is a story for another day). I was very much into Doctor Who at the time. Clearly I couldn’t be bothered cropping out my browser and tabs, though that’s barely a crime considering how many tabs I see other people open these days.

neverfly.org (2011)

The name of this site that I put fanlistings and icons/avatars on—Armor For Sleep themed, mind you—was derived from the Armor For Sleep song Slip Like Space. Some of the lyrics are “watch me point to the sky; you laugh and say I’ll never fly”. The debacle around this domain name was that I blogged about my idea (never fucking do that in the early 2010s) and someone who obviously read my blog decided to snatch it up. After kicking up a huge fuss (me, that is), they apologised for stealing my idea and transferred the domain to me. Joke’s on them, because a couple of years later, in true ADHD fashion, I got bored and decided I didn’t need 50 domains anymore.

Tofu cube layout for floriental.org hosting site (2014)

I had a hosting site, because shared hosting was kind of all the rage at one point, and people liked “pretty” domain names to have a subdomain on. This image is not the exact one I used (clearly—it says heartdrops.org lol). If the date is correct on this image’s metadata and the others on this page, though, clearly I couldn’t get over this pixelated sketched art vibe. Or maybe I copied/reused a previous piece of work I did? Either way, I had been drawing these tofu cubes with a sprout ever since the mid 2000s, and now all these years later I actually have a version of it tattooed on my arm. #funfact.

Tick Tock Goes The Clock: Doctor Who Series 6 fanlisting (2011)

I wasn’t lying when I said I was a fan of Doctor Who. I owned quite a few fanlistings associated with it. I’m just showing this off because my graphic design skills in this style had improved, like, at least five fold, I’m gonna say.

Mint WordPress theme (2011)

Just for good measure, another one of those WordPress themes I had for free that people liked to palm off as their own.